PinBud blog

Archive for August, 2010

Summary by: Abida N. Khan, MBA

It has been reported that the Yellow Pages Income Fund has fallen by almost one third in their latest financial quarter. Due to the economic uncertainty at present, clients have been ‘shying’ away from investing their hard earned money into the organization.

According to the Directory Publisher, the recent economic statistics that have been released has shown that there is widespread uncertainty when it comes to the economic recovery process; hence consumers have become skeptical in matters regarding investments.

At present Yellow Pages is looking to reinvent itself by moving its business from a paper publisher to a digital one. As many are aware Yellow Pages recently acquired Canpages and are currently examining ways in which to increase their revenue base in the digital arena. One of their plans includes implementing a search engine solution in order to make-up for the pressures faced by print media.

This is indeed a very good idea by Yellow Pages to move their business to the digital age, and I am sure this will definitely please many Yellow Pages users. Hopefully this move will aid the company in regaining their lost glory. Read More by: Nicolas Van Praet

The hail storm that hammered the Calgary area on July 12 is now deemed to be the costliest in Canadian history. The estimated damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles is said to be over $400 million. This materialized in tens of thousands of insurance claims and phone calls to repair shops.

Calgary is considered to be the "hail storm capital of Canada". Because of its high elevation and proximity to the Rockies, Calgary is closer to the bad clouds than other large cities in Canada.

According to the media, auto body shops like Precision Auto Body (http://www.pinbud.ca/business/3287-Precision-Auto-Body-Ltd/account-details.html) have been inundated with calls starting immediately after the storm and some are booked up well until next summer!

I am pretty sure that auto body shops in Calgary don't need PinBud to get jobs at the moment

However, I am curious to see if their tens of thousands customers will be happy with their services. Or with the services of the insurance companies, for that matter.

Really, I do! Yesterday I was enjoying my Jagermeister on the deck when my kid told me that we have a moth in the fireplace. She could see it behind the glass and it was scary, she claimed. “Just burn it!” was my quick solution. (Now, all you moth lovers don’t freak out! Maybe it was the Jager in me..).  “Dad, the fireplace doesn’t work!” Eager to kill the intruder, I tried it myself. Indeed, the fireplace was dead. After a quick assessment I decided that it needs cleaning and repairs… before winter comes in a couple of months (I’m in Calgary, not in Phoenix!). I figured that the problem is electrical even if it is a gas fireplace.

So, I do need someone to fix my fireplace. An electrician experienced with fireplaces, or vice-versa, a fireplace guy licensed as electrician.

So now, please tell me, where can I find someone like that? What, the Yellow Pages? Google Maps? Are you kidding me? Did you see those lists? And no, my buddy did not refer a good electrician to me either.

Let’s look at Yellow Pages. Results for “Electricians in Calgary”: three sponsored listings plus another 45 businesses. All have phone numbers. Some have websites and emails. One has photos, several have videos, and three have reviews. Unfortunately there are no keywords available. Obviously, I would narrow results if “fireplace” was a keyword.

Let’s look at Google: A few sponsored links and a bunch of organic listings. Some are electricians, others are classifieds (kijiji), the BBB, a couple directories (more directories?), and one or two review sites. Plus, of course, Google Maps (aka Google Places, formerly Google Local).

Now, you may think this is great! Plenty of choices, right? Actually, I don’t think so! Now I have to do a lot of research: read some business profiles and consumer reviews to find out who is qualified to do a good job. My budget is also limited; I figure this is a hundred bucks job, not more. Then what am I supposed to do? Select a few companies and call them one by one, explain the problem to each of them, get quotes, book appointments? Man, that requires some effort and it sounds time consuming!

I have a better solution: PinBud. Yeah, I’m not joking! The website is brand new but it is already returning some good results. Businesses are enrolling every day – for free! – all over Canada and United States, in many service categories, with all kinds of keywords and information. I can sort and display results by distance, by number of listings per page, or by working hours. I can indicate the search radius around my address. Or I can look for my keywords. Sorting by ratings and number of reviews is also available.

Each PinBud business listing has a detailed presentation page. If they completed their profile I can see a relevant description, contact information, location on the map, current deals and discounts, and previous job portfolio. User reviews and ratings are also enabled. Really, a listing on PinBud looks already as good as, if not better than, most other directories out there.

But our truly great local search improvement is the one contact form for multiple service providers. I can select several good local businesses, complete a quick and easy service request form, and send my quote request to all of them in one easy step.

So, here I go: I search for Electricians around my postal code, T2Y 4L6. PinBud returns 191 businesses located in a 25 km radius. That sounds like an awful lot, so I reduce the area to 10 km. I still get 59 businesses. Nevertheless, the first three listings are PinBud members that I can contact at once using the one request form. Ideally I should get tens of businesses so I can sort, review and select five or ten of them, but three will do for now. (Hello, Calgary Electricians! Why aren’t you there on PinBud already?)

I am sending my job request to the three Electricians I selected, and then I will wait for their response and decide for the best quote (not necessarily the cheapest).  In the end, one electrician will get the job and we will have a working fireplace this winter. And no moth either!

Chris (going back to my Jagermeister now)

The first version of PinBud was launched in Canada at the beginning of 2010. Since then we've manage to grow steadily the number of businesses that have open an account with us, so PinBud.ca features now quite interesting listings in areas such as:

• plumbers in Calgary
• general contracting and renovations in Calgary
• interior design in Calgary
• basement renovations in Calgary
• office & shop renovations in Calgary
• fireplaces in Calgary
• tax preparers in Calgary
• accountants and bookkeepers in Calgary
• interior design in Edmonton
• painting in Edmonton
• graphic designers in Calgary
• realtors and appraisers in Calgary
• and many more…

We still have to populate certain categories, such as dentists in Calgary, where we would love to see more plain members. As we wrote earlier, PinBud's 'own radius' feature is ideal for businesses such as a dental clinic or a veterinarian cabinet in search for clients. Using 'own radius' feature, combined with vouchers, a dentist or a vet can easily get clients from outside its community.

But we have now almost 300 businesses that can be contacted and participate in bids for a lot of jobs. Thus, we have also experience the first  "single requests for service" / "get quotes" and we must say that our system works like we wanted: it's simple to understand, simple to use and the first users seem to love it.

So, don't wait anymore:

• open your account 
• fill-in the profile
• get reviews
• publish your badge
• answer and bid…
• enjoy PinBud!